The Ultimate Avenger
by 007 James Bond
Summary: Nick Fury, alarmed by the theft of the Tesseract and Loki's ability to bend people to his will effortlessly, decided to call in a “consultant” he had left off the books so far — an individual he preferred not to bother unless absolutely necessary. An otherworldly being trying to subjugate the planet would surely fit the bill, wouldn’t it? Rating may go up.
1. Chapter I

**Disclaimer: **Neither Harry Potter nor Avengers are mine.

* * *

**Natasha**

Natasha Romanoff — agent, assassin, spy — the infamous Black Widow — was worried, confused and scared — all at the same time. And she was right to be. Almost a week had passed since the chain of events leading to her current situation had been set in motion. A week since Clint Barton — Hawkeye — had been compromised — put under some form of mind control by a supposedly otherworldly aggressor. A week since she had been pulled out of her investigation of illegal arms dealers and forced to fly halfway across the globe to recruit a certain Dr. Bruce Banner.

Throughout her career, Natasha had dealt with all sorts of craziness — especially since she had defected to SHIELD. The likes of enhanced humans, mutants or cyborgs didn't really faze her anymore. But this was on a different scale. How does one deal with someone who was, until recently, considered a mythological being — a god — for all intents and purposes? Someone who could take away one's free will and force them to do their bidding effortlessly?

Ever since her defection to SHIELD, Barton had been her partner on almost every non-solo mission. He was the only person who had shown her real empathy — the only one she could call a friend — the only one she could trust to an extant — the only one in the land of living anyway. Barton, in return, had trusted her with his family — something he kept hidden even from SHIELD. Natasha had colleagues, of course, but her reputation caused them to keep her at an arm's length. In fact, her getting close to someone was often considered a sign of their impending doom. She had, after all, a very specific skill set and had no qualms about using any means at her disposal to complete her mission.

Not that Natasha cared — it was one of the lessons drilled into her throughout her Red Room days. Relationships and sentiments are dangerous — to be avoided at all costs. One never knows when they could be asked to dispose of someone they've known, or even worked with, for years. It was a lesson Natasha had learnt the hard way — she had been forced to take the life of someone she had come to care greatly for. She still couldn't think of the incident without guilt flaring up her chest. It was one of the primary reasons she had opted to defect to SHIELD when Barton had offered — instead of killing her as his mission had stipulated — a debt she doubted she'd ever be able to pay in full.

So when Loki had been captured in Germany and had been brought to the helicarrier, she had visited him in captivity — hoping to find a way to release Barton from his control — or at least have his life spared. She wasn't entirely lying when she had professed her attempt to save Barton to be a by-product of her desire to wipe the red from her ledger — although she liked to think she cared just a bit more about Barton than that.

Needless to say, the meeting had not gone the way she had wanted. Loki had turned out to be even worse of a monster than she had imagined.

"I won't touch Barton. Not until I make him kill you! Slowly. Intimately. In every way he knows you fear! And when he'll wake just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams, I'll split his skull! This is my bargain, you mewling quim!" Loki had screamed at her when she had tried to appeal for Barton's life. It was evident that Loki hadn't so much been captured as he had allowed himself to be taken — a sentiment Fury had echoed.

"Then why do I feel like he's the only person on this boat that wants to be here?" Fury had said in response to Thor's declaration about Loki being a prisoner.

Fortunately, her parting comment about Loki being a monster had caused him to reveal his immediate plans — which involved Banner going green and rampaging across the helicarrier — something that would cripple SHIELD for the foreseeable future. While it was a solid strategy to disable potential opponents before they had a chance to act, there had to be more to it. If Barton had told him everything he knew, Loki could easily cripple SHIELD without letting himself be captured. The only thing she could think of was that he wanted their attention focused on himself while his subordinates did his biding — he was stalling for time. And he clearly had confidence in his ability to walk out of his prison whenever he wanted.

But that was something they could analyse later. Her first priority was to have Banner isolated. Hulk rampaging across the helicarrier would cause hundreds of deaths — most of the SHIELD personnel were ordinary people. Highly trained, no doubt, but certainly not capable of surviving a fall from tens of thousands of feet — she doubted _she_ could survive that kind of a fall — despite her enhanced endurance. And she certainly didn't want Banner to be a guilt-ridden wreck when he came around — not on her watch — not when she was the one to persuade him to come out of his self imposed exile.

Having informed SHIELD of Loki's plan, she sprinted over to the lab where Stark and Banner were supposed to be working on locating the Tesseract. What she witnessed upon her arrival caused her blood pressure levels to skyrocket. Instead of doing anything to avert the catastrophe, the so called Avengers appeared to be busy bickering amongst themselves — with Fury thrown in for good measure. Stark and Rogers were at each other's throats, while Fury, Thor and Banner were shouting at each other. Fury appeared to be on the defensive though — now that was a rare sight.

As amusing as it was, Fury had put a lot of hope in the Avengers Initiative — even though it had officially been shut down. And despite not knowing about the initiative — Fury was waiting for another to arrive before going for the introduction — she had expected a bit more maturity from the members. It didn't take her long to come to the conclusion that without something to bind them together, the initiative was doomed. Other than Rogers — not that he was behaving any better — they were dealing with civilians with egos the size of Mount Everest. She suspected that by the time they would manage to get their act together — if they ever did — it would likely be too late.

Thor had indicated that they were likely to be invaded by an advanced warring race of aliens. If that were the case, they needed a united front to counter them. She highly doubted even enhanced individuals like Rogers and Stark could stand against space-faring invaders on their own. Cursing Fury for putting her in a situation like that, she prepared to put her foot down and put an end to the bickering. But she didn't need to — someone beat her to the punch.

* * *

"It's his MO, isn't it? I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're... we're a time-bomb," Banner was raging.

"You need to step away," replied Fury, in a forcefully calm voice.

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" asked Stark, putting his arm around Rogers, infuriating him in the process.

"You know damn well why! Back off!" snarled Rogers, pulsing Stark off.

"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me," replied Stark, stepping into Rogers' personal space, coming face to face with him.

"Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. Yeah, I've seen the footage."

There was a pause before Rogers continued.

"The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

"I think I would just cut the wire."

Rogers smirked, "Always a way out... You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

"A hero? Like you? You're a lab rat, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle," shouted Stark. Rogers' last comment had hit a nerve, it seemed.

Before Rogers could respond to the snark, an authoritative voice reverberated across the room. It wasn't particularly loud, but the tone was unmistakable — the speaker was beyond annoyed. Strangely enough, the voice seemed to have no definite origin. It seemed to be coming from the very walls of the room.

"That's enough!"

Natasha paled — she knew that voice. She could recognise it anywhere — despite not having heard it for a long time. It was the voice — and the face associated with it — that had haunted her nightmares for years.

A man stepped out from the shadows.

"Are these the morons you're betting the entire planet on, Fury?" asked the newcomer, his voice barely above a whisper. Yet it carried across the room as if he had shouted out loud.

The room seemed to be stunned into silence. Naturally, it was Stark who broke it in his usual brash manner.

"Who the hell are you?"

It was Fury who responded, "He is the last member of the team I've been waiting for…"

"What team? I sure as hell am not teaming up with a bunch of numbskulls who are in the middle of a dick measuring contest while a potential global extinction event is at our doorstep…"

There were cries of outrage. Natasha would have found the situation comical — had she not been struggling to come to terms with the arrival of the newcomer.

"Who the hell do you think you are, kid?" Rogers was the loudest.

"Harry Potter — he is…" Natasha found herself speaking, when no one else seemed to be in a hurry to do the introductions. But she couldn't continue — unable to bring herself to say any further — not sure what she could say without making the situation worse.

The newcomer turned around.

"Ah, I was wondering if I would see you around, Natasha…"

"But how?" Natasha couldn't help but blurt out.

The newcomer — Harry — snorted derisively. "That's for me to know, isn't it? I am hardly going to expose all my secrets to the infamous Black Widow."

Natasha reeled back as if physically slapped. Harry Potter had been one kill she had always regretted. She had never forgotten the look of abject betrayal on his face when he had realised what she had done. She had been assigned to his case when three assassins sent after him had vanished without any trace. Her mission had been to seduce, extract information and kill — nothing she hadn't done before. In fact, those were here specialities. Unfortunately, none of that had worked on the mystery that was Harry Potter. Instead of seducing him, she had ended up falling for him. His sincerity, his maturity, his non-judgemental and caring nature and his willingness to put his life on the line for those he cared for had proved too hard for her to resist. Before she met Harry Potter, she never believed anyone would ever truly care for her — especially when they found out the exact nature of her work. But Potter — Harry — had accepted her for what she was — even when he had found out her real identity — thanks to an attempt at her life. He had protected her, cared for her when she was injured and even offered to help her escape her handlers if she so desired. In exchange, she had slipped a poisonous needle into his neck and watched the light leave those haunted green eyes looking accusingly at her while her victim lay paralysed.

The victim — who was standing feet away from her — looking as if nothing had happened. She couldn't understand how — she had verified the kill before leaving the hotel he was staying at. The guilt in her chest was replaced by fear as she realised the precarious situation she found herself in.

"Romanoff! Romanoff! You alright?" Fury was shouting from across the room. She had missed some of the conversation, but Fury seemed to have made the introductions and reassured the others of Harry's presence to the point where they were no longer pointing their weapons at him, although the looks of distrust and hostility remained.

"I'm… I'm fine," she found herself replying. As much as she wanted to run away from the accusing stare of Harry Potter, they had bigger problems. Perhaps, if she survived whatever was coming, she might be able to ask for forgiveness. How does one ask someone forgiveness for their betrayal and attempted — almost successful — murder, though?

"So, what do we know about crazy bastard's plans?" asked Harry.

"Have care how you speak!" shouted Thor. "Loki is beyond reason, but he is a prince of Asgard!"

"Is Asgard taking responsibility for his actions?" asked Harry calmly, but not giving an inch.

Thor bristled, "He'll face Asgardian justice."

"He has committed war crimes on Earth. Asgard can have what's left once we are done with him."

"He's my brother!"

Harry turned towards Fury, "Do you typically allow people with clear conflict of interest to attend your confidential meetings? How do we know he's not going to side with his brother in the upcoming conflict?"

"He does have a point," piped in Stark. "Point Break here has already tried to rescue Loki once — without a care for who he hurt in the process."

There was some more bickering about whether Thor could be trusted until Phil Coulson arrived to vouch for him. Fortunately for Thor, Coulson was someone Harry appeared to be willing to trust — for reasons unknown.

"Alright Coulson, I am willing to take your word for it. But remember this, I do not take betrayals lightly."

Natasha gulped — was he looking at her when he said that?

"Now take me to Loki," continued Harry as if nothing had happened.

Thor appeared angry but held his tongue.

"He hasn't been very cooperative…" started Coulson.

"He'll sing like a canary once I am done with him," smirked Harry.

Thor bristled, "And what exactly…"

"Let me explain something to you — Thor, was it?" Harry cut across. 'Your brother came to our planet uninvited and killed almost eighty humans — half of whom were civilians," he paused for emphasis, "despite — as you said — not being at war with us. I don't know how laws in Asgard work, but attacking civilians — even during war times — is considered a grave crime almost everywhere on this planet… After all that, you do not get a say in what we do to protect our planet."

Everyone stood stunned for a moment.

"Please turn off all cameras," he said to the room at large.

"I can't condone torturing people, Potter," started Rogers, getting up from his chair.

"So you'd rather let seven billion people die? Or would you prefer enslavement?" challenged Harry. "I don't particularly enjoy it, Rogers, but unless you have a way to make Loki speak — and quickly at that, I suggest you get out of my way…"

"Let me speak to him," Thor pleaded — looking like wind had been knocked off his sails, "I'm sure I can get him to see reason…"

"Be my guest," replied Harry, "but hurry up, we don't have a lot of time."

Thor nodded and left with Coulson — presumably to wherever Loki was being kept.

"Romanoff, can you show Mr. Potter to him room?" asked Fury after a few minutes when it looked like nobody had anything else to say — seemingly oblivious to the tension between the two. Harry had chosen not to elaborate on their previous encounter.

* * *

As she led Harry to his room, Natasha's mind was in turmoil. This was very different from the Harry Potter she had once known. Was it all a facade? Or had he changed after the incident? Fury had mentioned he had some skills suited to the Avengers Initiative. What could he have meant? Had he been experimented upon somehow? That could be the only explanation for his survival. He must have been taken right when he was on the brink of death. She wondered what horrors he had witnessed.

More importantly, what did it mean for her? He wouldn't just let it go, would he? She wanted to talk to him — to get answers to all the questions running through her head — but she had lost that privilege when she had — against her better judgement — slipped that needle into his neck.

"Don't worry Natasha. If I wanted you dead, you'd have died a long time ago," replied Harry grimly, almost as if he had read her thoughts. "I've always known where you were, after all."

* * *

They were called for a full briefing about the situation about an hour or so later — once Banner and Stark had managed to locate the Tesseract. Something about it seemed to be causing a lot of distress to the usually mild mannered scientist.

But before the briefing could take place — or indeed anyone could talk about anything at all, the entire carrier was rocked by an explosion and the lab was filled with smoke. Natasha found herself disoriented — and more importantly, trapped beneath something heavy. There was some indistinct chatter about one of the engines being down and everyone hurrying towards their respective stations. When the smoke finally cleared, Natasha found herself — still trapped beneath one of the heavy pipes — with Banner on the floor, clearly on the verge of going green. She had to furiously wave away some of the SHIELD agents — who bolted for their lives. It wouldn't do for Hulk to perceive them as threat.

"Doctor... Bruce, you gotta fight it. This is just what Loki wants. We're gonna be okay. Listen to me…" she found herself rambling — anything to keep the doctor from turning. "We're gonna be okay. Right? I swear on my life I will get you out of this, you will walk away, and never..."

"Your life?"

His voice had changed — the bitter amusement giving way to a growled threat. Another explosion rocked the carrier — and he turned to look at her, starting the transformation just as the lights went out. Around the same time, she noticed multi coloured jets of light hitting the transforming Banner — the source just outside her field of vision. Whoever was using the prototype laser weapons clearly had no clue what the Hulk was capable of. It wasn't likely to do anything other than enraging him — which made her situation decidedly worse. Cursing the stupidity of whoever had fired those lasers, she redoubled her efforts to free herself. Caught at an awkward angle beneath the machinery, the Hulk would pulverise her with absolutely no scope for defence…

Natasha blinked. Instead of angrily smashing things as he was normally prone to, the Hulk was… rolling on the floor… laughing? At least that was what it sounded like — not that it was any less terrifying. That's when she found the pipes being lifted off her. Twisting around, she found Harry standing behind her holding a stick pointed at the pipes which were floating in the air. Harry's voice brought her out of her stupor.

"Run!" shouted Harry, "I can't hold him forever!"

Turning around, she looked on in disbelief as a lot of broken equipment — mostly pipes — floating around and forming a — cage — around the laughing Hulk who seemed to be oblivious to it.

"How?" she turned open-mouthed towards Harry.

"Really? That's what you want to know right now?" retorted an annoyed Harry.

"Never mind," replied Natasha contritely. "That won't hold him, you know? He can punch through inches of solid steel."

"I know," replied Harry, "I am just buying us some time."

The cage, which was now complete, momentarily glowed blue.

"There — it's the best I can do for now — it will take him more than a few minutes for him to break through… Now tell me where Loki is held — I have a really bad feeling about this…"

"Follow me!"

As they ran towards the Loki's cage, Natasha had — once again —thousands of questions running through her head. The Harry Potter she had known certainly did not have these super powers. Or had he simply hidden them? This could not possibly be the result of any kind of scientific experiment, could it? It was almost like — magic. Did Fury know about it? Was that why she had been tasked with his assassination? She had merely been told that he was a threat of the highest level and had to be eliminated — she had known better than to question her superiors. During the time she had spent with him, she had figured out that he was keeping secrets, but he had always seemed like a harmless mild mannered person — not unlike Coulson.

Her thoughts were disrupted by the arrival of a figure clad in black wielding a bow and arrows, running towards them.

"Barton!" she found herself shouting.

"Is he friendly?" asked Harry.

She was saved the trouble of having to respond by Barton firing an arrow at them with deadly accuracy. Harry was faster — a translucent white dome had surrounded them before the arrow was even halfway through — which was just as well — the arrow exploded on impact. Had the dome not existed, the explosion would've knocked them out even if they had managed dodge it.

Harry dropped the dome as Barton ran towards them with a knife — clearly not having expected them to be on their feet.

"No stop — don't kill him," cried Natasha as Harry raised his hand.

A red beam of light hit Barton in the chest — who was too surprised — and too close — to dodge. He was blasted off his feet, landing in a heap about ten feet away.

"He's not dead," remarked Harry, correctly interpreting Natasha's look of dispair. "He'll wake up in a few hours. Take him to the hospital — I can make my way from here."

* * *

The next time Natasha saw Harry was in the briefing room a few hours later. Barton had indeed woken up in a couple of hours with nothing worse than a concussion. Whatever Harry had done had removed Loki's control over him — something everyone was immensely grateful for. He was distraught about the damage he had been forced to do under Loki's control.

Unfortunately, Harry had been too late to prevent Loki from escaping. In fact, Barton had been on his way back after helping Loki escape. Loki had apparently managed to trick his brother and throw him off the carrier — in addition to stabbing Coulson in the back. Fortunately, Harry had managed to put him in some form of stasis before he could bleed out — giving the medics a chance at saving his life. He was not out of the woods though — and there was a good chance of him ending up paralysed for life even if he did survive. The injury was way too close to the spinal cord.

Surprisingly enough, Hulk had not gone on a rampage. He had fallen asleep inside his cage and had eventually reverted to Banner. The doctor was amazed and grateful to Harry — and was in the middle of thanking Harry profusely when she had arrived. He looked far more cheerful than she had ever see him.

Despite Banner's uncharacteristic cheerfulness, the tension in the room was thick enough to cut with a knife. Coulson's injury seemed to have hit everyone hard. Almost all of them had known him personally at some point or the other.

Fury was being his usual self, attempting to use Coluson's near death to manipulate events in his favour — although she detected a hint of sincerity in his voice.

"We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, location of the cube, Thor. I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming," Fury was saying. "Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea — Stark knows this — called The Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to — to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson was ready to die — will likely still die — believing in that idea, in heroes…" Stark walked off, not wanting to hear it anymore. "Well, it's an old fashioned notion."

* * *

Stark walked back into the room a few minutes after Fury had left with his posse — leaving Natasha alone with Harry and Rogers — Banner having gone back to the lab.

"Does he have a family? Is he married?" asked Rogers.

"No. He was seeing a… uh... cellist, I think," Tony replied uncomfortably.

"I'm sorry. He seemed like a good man."

"He is an idiot."

"Why? For believing?"

"For taking on Loki alone."

"He was doing his job."

"He was out of his league. He should have waited. He should have..."

"Sometimes, Stark, you have to choose between what is right and what is easy," spoke Harry, his voice hollow — almost painful. Natasha wondered how he knew Coulson. "Sometimes there is no way out."

"Right. How did that work for him?" sniped Stark.

"Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?" asked Rogers.

Stark turned around sharply, "WE ARE NOT SOLDIERS! I am not marching to Fury's fife!"

"No we're not," replied Harry, "but tell me, Stark… Tony… can you walk away from a tyrant hell bent on murder and mayhem and subjugation of our planet? Knowing there the the slightest chance you could have helped? Tell me, are you willing to run — to go into hiding when Loki attacks with his army? Knowing there is every chace you might die? Can you live with yourself if you do?"

Both Stark and Rogers were staring at him, the former looking shameful, the latter puzzled.

"You speak like someone who has seen war," spoke Rogers.

Harry laughed — it was a hollow, bitter laugh, "My entire life has been a war..."

"What?" asked a horrified Rogers.

"Now is not the best time Cap — let's focus on Loki for now," replied Harry.

"Right," interjected Natasha, coming back to the problem at hand, "Loki needs a power source, if we can put together a list..."

"Why did he attack us?" Stark asked out of nowhere.

"What?" asked Rogers, startled.

"Why did he attack us here? Right where we live?" Stark rephrased his question.

"He does have a point," added Natasha.

Harry snorted — causing the others to stare at him, "Oh, I know his type. He doesn't just want to beat us — he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience…"

"Right, I caught his act at Stuttgart," muttered Rogers.

"That was the trailer, this is opening night. He wants to break us in front of the largest audience he can muster, he wants a monument built in the skies with his name plastered..." Harry continued bitterly.

"Son of a bitch!" cursed Stark.

* * *

As the boys — the Avengers — were busy suiting up, Natasha was facing a conundrum of her own. As much as she wanted to join them — and she know they needed all the help they could get — she was not a front line fighter — she was a spy, an assassin. As Barton had rightly pointed out, direct combat was not her forte. Sure, she could hold her own against humans, but they were talking about space faring killing machines. What hope did she have against those?

And yet, she had already changed into her combat gear — her catsuit — and was strapping on her weapons. She just couldn't not go — if there was the slightest chance she could make a difference. Harry was right — she wouldn't be able to live with herself otherwise — not that she'd be allowed to live for long if Loki won anyway. She just hoped not to be a liability.

* * *

"Can you fly one of those jets?" asked Rogers when they met on the way to the hanger.

"I can," someone responded before Natasha could. Hawkeye was already waiting for them.

Rogers looked at her, silently asking if it was a good idea to take him. She nodded. Harry, on the other hand, was frowning, but chose not to speak.

"Let's go!"

* * *

Thanks for reading! Please drop a line to let me know what you think.

**Published: **2019-09-12


	2. Chapter II

**Disclaimer: **Neither Harry Potter nor Avengers are mine.

* * *

**Harry**

Harry Potter had been enjoying his well earned vacation in Spain when his phone had rang, triggering the series of events leading up to his current predicament. Now a phone call wouldn't be all that unusual. Despite not having many friends, and no family to speak of, he did get calls from time to time. No, it was the identity of the caller that gave him pause. Nick Fury, the director of SHIELD, an organisation primarily responsible for worldwide espionage and assassination — err… worldwide security and peace, was calling, and that typically meant trouble.

Harry had lost almost everyone he had cared for during the war with Voldemort, and the remaining in the aftermath of it. A desperate attempt to fix things had going horribly wrong, killing the last of his friends and forcing him to bid goodbye to his old world. Alternating between clinical depression and undiluted rage, completely broke — the goblins were vindictive creatures, and lacking any respectable skill marketable in the muggle world, or credentials that would pass muster in an era increasingly dominated by technology, he had eventually taken up bounty hunting and espionage, and eventually assassination for a living. While he had found the profession rather distasteful, he was no longer the innocent child who had once felt horrified at having hurt someone trying to cast an unforgivable curse at him.. He had gained notoriety for accepting contracts for some very specific, and seemingly impossible jobs — powerful corrupt politicians, criminals, drug lords, mafia bosses, terrorist leaders — the kind most spies and assassins tended to avoid for one reason or the other. Thanks to the Auror training, which he had never completed, and subtle use of magic in an unsuspecting muggle society, he had quickly become one of the best in his line of work

Unsurprisingly, this had led him to acquire more than a few powerful enemies over the years. His universally abrasive and confrontational attitude had done nothing to help matters. Given that he was nearly impossible to find — almost nobody knew his real name or what he even looked like, his adversaries had taken an indirect approach. More than once he had walked into a trap disguised as a job — not that it had prevented him from destroying his would be executioners. He had even enjoyed the looks of astonishment and fear on the faces of his treacherous patrons upon the realisation that they essentially had to pay him wiping out their allies, right before he killed them, of course; he had adopted a zero tolerance policy for betrayals in the early days of his career.

He was on such an excursion when he had met the man who would change the direction of his life. He had been sent after a bunch of terrorists, who had, in turn, been tipped off in advance. Harry had smelled a rat well before he had entered the hideout, and had decided to blow it up instead of hunting them down one by one. It hadn't been particularly difficult with the amount of explosives they had stockpiled. Unfortunately, he hadn't accounted for the presence of a third party.

SHIELD, it seemed, had got wind of the massive amount of explosives being moved and had sent someone on a reconnaissance mission. A certain Agent Phil Coulson had been within the blast radius when Harry had lit the fuse. Assuming Coulson to be one of the terrorists, he had captured him; hoping to gain some intel. However, once he had been healed enough to talk, Coulson had made it evident that was not in league with the terrorists.

Feeling guilty at having badly hurt — nearly killed an innocent, Harry had discreetly healed him using magic to the point where he was in no danger of death or permanent disfigurement — with the intention of sending him on his way as soon as he could. Coulson had had other ideas, though. He had somehow managed to deduce that Harry was the assassin commonly known as the Phantom; SHIELD had apparently been looking to recruit him. Coulson had then offered him a job as an agent — an offer he had been quick to reject. But Coulson had been persistent.

"Why would you want a known assassin anyway? Wouldn't your government want to arrest me?" Harry had asked, partly amused, partly annoyed.

"We employ people with diverse set of skills, Mr. Phantom," Coulson had replied calmly: Harry had not revealed his name or real face to him. "Keeping the world safe is a complicated job. You're already doing more or less what we'd expect of you as an agent, why not make it legitimate?"

It had taken days, but Coulson's persistence had won. Harry had eventually relented. He'd go on to join SHIELD, not as an agent, but as a consultant — and with a few stipulations of his own, which would grant him more freedom than he would normally be allowed. He would be called in for cases uniquely suited to his skill set, and his existence would be known only to a select few, even within the organisation. He would be — as Fury had said — a Ghost Operative — one that didn't officially exist.

Over the years, he had been called in for a variety of covert operations. Among other things, he had assisted with the rescue of a billionaire from terrorists in Afghanistan, protected a scientist who had managed to turn himself into a green rage monster — from the military and other interested parties, spied on a paranoid autocratic head of state, assassinated the said head of state while making it look like a natural death, bust a major drug racket, and prevented the assassinations of a head of state and a scientist. As expected of a Ghost Operative, his involvement had remained a complete secret in every single case; Fury had always insisted on keeping his existence a secret at any cost. He had, at times, been pulled from cases which had become too public for him to operate anonymously. He had, for example, arrived too late to help relocate a certain object that had seemingly fallen out of the sky in the town of Puente Antiguo in New Mexico. Coulson had been dispatched in his stead to handle the situation which had escalated thanks to a bumbling blond idiot.

So when Fury had called to inform him that it was time to drop the anonymity and secrecy, he had been beyond surprised. Apparently an otherworldly entity — an alien had stolen an artefact of great power from a SHIELD and had managed to put some of their operatives under some kind of mind control. The said individual was currently wreaking havoc in Germany for reasons unknown.

"Wait, wait, you realise that this will be the end of ghost ops for me? There is no coming back from this — if you send me on the front lines — if I am seen in action along with these… these Avengers of yours — there is no way I'll be able to retain my cover — do you understand that?" That was not strictly true, of course. But Fury didn't need to know that. On the front lines, he'd almost certainly have to use magic openly just to survive — something he had actively avoided so far. He had mastered the art of using his magic discreetly over the years.

"This is bigger than any of us, Potter. The Tesseract is way more powerful than any nuke ever built — even the Tsar Bomba was nothing in comparison. In the wrong hands, it can level the entire planet," Fury had almost pleaded.

"And what exactly was SHIELD doing with it?"

* * *

Fury had given him abridged details of the history of Tessaract and their plans to weaponise it — supposedly as a deterrent against powerful aliens like those involved in the Puente Antiguo incident in New Mexico. Harry wasn't buying it, but had chosen to hold his tongue for the time being. He needed more information — information that men like Nick Fury and Albus Dumbledore kept as close to their chests as possible.

By the time he had arrived at the flying metal fortress that served as the mobile headquarters for SHIELD, the team dispatched to Germany had returned with the perpetrator. Instead of revealing himself immediately, he had opted to stay disillusioned in the shadows — to get a measure of the people he was supposed to be teaming up with.

It had been evident that the alien hadn't so much been captured as he had allowed himself to be captured. Worse, the people involved in the mission had been busy antagonising each other in the face of a potential world ending event. It hadn't taken Harry long to detect a foreign presence trying to invade his mind. The effect was subtle — the equivalent of mild compulsion and confounding charms. He had managed to pin-point the source to the sceptre lying on a table in the middle of the room. However, the effect had not been strong enough to explain the atrocious behaviour on display; the sceptre had, at best, lowered the inhibitions of the people involved.

Having seen and heard enough, Harry had eventually stepped in to chastise the so called Avengers while wandlessly dampening the effects of the sceptre. He had barely stepped in the light when he had been confronted by the last person he had wanted to see — Natasha Romanoff. The hurt he had felt at her betrayal, something he had kept suppressed for years, had hit with the force of a freight train. It had taken every ounce of his self control to keep his face impassive. It would have been foolish to put his personal grudge against one of Fury's top agents on display, especially when they had far bigger problems to worry about.

Natasha Romanoff had been one exception to his zero tolerance towards betrayal policy. She had defected to SHIELD almost immediately after the incident. He had rationalised his decision to not go after her as unwillingness to take his new employer head on; he had joined SHIELD just a few months earlier himself. But a part of him doubted he could actually bring himself to kill her — not after the initial rage at the betrayal had settled. Besides, the supposed assassination had helped him thoroughly discard his old identity in favour of a brand new one, putting an end to further assassination attempts.

On the flip side, Harry had lost the last vestiges of his innocence he had so desperately clung to. He had been left jaded and cynical, unable to trust anyone. One some level, he had blamed himself for being so naive as to believe that a renowned assassin had actually cared for him — for not having learnt his lesson after all the betrayals he had endured. Had he not been raised like a pig for slaughter by someone he had considered a mentor, even a grandfather?

Harry had been distracted from his thoughts when Fury had started introductions. He had introduced him as a consultant who had some skills that might help against Loki. Thankfully, he had kept the details to himself — not that he knew much. Sadly, his attempts to interrogate Loki had to be put on hold — Harry suspected Fury wanted Thor on their side at any cost. A subtle shake of head had forced him to go against his better judgement and allow the blond idiot to talk to his brother first — a mistake that had cost them dearly. They had been attacked and Loki had escaped in the ensuing chaos; he had thrown his brother off the carrier and almost-fatally stabbed Coulson in the process.

* * *

As the Quinjet took off from the Helicarrier, Harry found himself under the scrutiny of Rogers and Stark.

"What?" he asked testily.

"How did you fix the engine?" asked Stark.

"What are you talking about?" retorted Harry, feeling uneasy. He had tried to be discreet, but clearly had not done a good job of it.

"I saw you there — you did something and the whole thing went back to looking good as new," replied Stark, causing everyone's attention to turn to Harry.

There was an uncomfortable silence while Harry tried to figure out how to answer the question while revealing as little as possible.

"Look, Potter — Harry — if we are going to work together, we need to trust each other…." added Steve. "We need to know what each of us can do — or we'll just get in each other's way."

That did make sense — he had seen, firsthand, the results of keeeping secrets from allies. But after the incident with Natasha, he had lost his ability to fully trust anyone — and magic had always been misunderstood and mistrusted by muggles anyway.

"So… what can you do?" Steve pressed on while Harry was still trying to figure out what to say. "Fury seems to think very highly of you… What do you do for SHIELD anyway?"

"Espionage and assassination," Harry deadpanned.

"Really?" asked Banner incredulously.

Harry nodded, "Yeah, I have a unique set of skills that makes me really good at the job — I was a Ghost Operative."

"Wait, didn't they shut down the program?" asked Barton. "We haven't trained one of those in years…"

"I wasn't really trained by SHIELD — I was doing it well before Coulson found me and bullied me into joining…"

"So, you were murdering innocents for money before he found you? And they just let you join?" Steve was incredulous.

Harry's face hardened — he hated people who judged others without knowing the full story. "No Captain Rogers, I was not — as you put it — murdering innocents for money. I… I was in a very bad place… Cleaning up the society — getting rid of the scum poisoning it — it gave me a purpose in life…" He steeled himself, "I'll have you know I've never accepted a hit on an innocent — no matter how much it paid. Heck, I wiped entire gangs when someone tried to send me after someone undeserving under false pretexts…."

Natasha gasped, "You're the Phantom? You're the one that crippled organised crime all over the world? No wonder they wanted you dead…"

Harry nodded, smiling sardonically. Everyone was staring at Natasha who looked deeply uncomfortable.

"Back in the day, there were rumours of an assassin who specialised in the seemingly impossible — except that they wouldn't take a contract unless they were convinced that the victim deserved their fate. Most didn't believe it — it was like a ghost story… There were rumours that they had killed thousands — and nobody even knew who they were — or what they looked like…"

"Yeah, That was me alright…"

There was uncomfortable silence while everyone mulled over the revelations.

"I'm sorry," mumbled Steve.

"What does that have to do with the engine?" Stark was persistent.

"Well, let's just say, my skills help me with more than just assassination… You see, I can perform magic…" almost everyone snorted disbelievingly. "Really? That's what's tripping you? We have a man who hibernated for seventy years and come out looking none the worse for wear, a scientist that turns into a green rage monster — no offence doctor — "

"None taken!"

"— a Tin Can that flies and shoots laser —"

"Hey! I'll have you know —"

"Shut up Stark!" almost everyone said in unison.

"— and you saw all the stuff Loki did — yet you can't digest a bit of magic?"

"Magic is just stuff science hasn't managed to explain yet," replied Banner, looking uncomfortable.

"Ok, let's go with that — I can do things science hasn't managed to explain so far —"

"That's a mouthful," mumbled Tony.

"Hence the codename — magic," retorted Harry.

"So, this magic of yours — it can repair things?"

"Within limits, yes."

"Cool! What else can you do?" exclaimed Tony, with a childlike excitement.

"A bit of this and bit of that — I dare say you'll get to see some of it very soon… But for now, we need to figure out some kind of a strategy — we aren't that far from Manhattan…"

"Wait, one last question," interjected Barton, who had mostly remained silent so far. "How do the two of you know each other?" he asked, looking at Harry and Natasha, both of them looking very uncomfortable.

"It's a long story, Clint," Harry sighed, looking directly at Natasha, hoping she wouldn't reveal anything that would compromise the team. "But now is not the best time…"

"I think that's a valid question — the two of you are clearly uncomfortable with each other — were you dating or something?" Tony asked with his usual lack of tact. "What? I am just trying to ensure that the team is not compromised!"

Harry laughed derisively, trying his best to suppress the bitterness that was threatening to creep up, "Let's just say — we were acquainted before our SHIELD days… And don't worry about the team, Tony. We know what's at stake…"

"So the strategy… What did you have in mind?" asked Steve, trying to breach the uncomfortable silence that had fallen.

"About that — you kids figure it out and let me know. I'll go on ahead and check things out — do a bit of reconnaissance, you know?" interrupted Tony, preparing to jump off the Quinjet, causing Harry to facepalm.

* * *

It didn't take them long to arrive at the Stark Tower. They were attacked almost immediately — Loki had already noticed them. Fortunately, Clint was able to avoid the first volley.

"The Quinjet is a liability now — we don't want it crashing anywhere near midtown Manhattan," said Harry. "I am going on ahead to engage Loki. Clint, put her down somewhere safe and meet us at the Stark Tower…"

"Us?" asked Banner.

"Steve, Natasha and I. Sorry doctor, but I don't think the Hulk will agree with my method of travel. Oh, and remember this — he clings to the last thoughts you have before you turn. Mind your thoughts if you need to bring out the big guns."

"You seem to know more about him than I do," replied Banner, almost accusingly, but the trio had already vanished, leaving him open mouthed.

* * *

"What the hell was that?" gasped Natasha, once they had landed at the bottom of Stark Tower.

"A teleportation device?" supplied Rogers, turning to look at Harry, who was already turning on the spot to disapparate, leaving the two of them to try and evacuate as many civilians as possible.

Harry materialised on the deck of the Stark Tower just in time see Loki preparing to deal a killing blow to a battered Tony Stark — his Iron Man suit in pieces.

"Contego Fortis!" shouted Harry, forming a dome shield around Stark, which successfully absorbed the almost certain death racing towards him.

"Get the hell out of here, Stark," shouted Harry, while hitting him with a general purpose healing spell — not very effective, but enough to facilitate his escape. Tony tried to crawl away, but Loki was having none of it.

"I don't remember giving you permission to move, Stark. So why don't you stay where you are while I punish the wannabe Seidhr for interfering with divine justice," monologued Loki, raising his sceptre.

Harry was having none of it. "Reducto!" he cried.

Loki blocked the spell easily. "You think your pathetic spells are a match for me, Seidhr? I AM A GOD!" he shouted as he fired a massive burst of blue energy from his sceptre. Harry was barely able to conjure a shield to protect himself. And it almost buckled under the onslaught.

"Diffindo! Depulso! Sectumsempra!" Harry started casting in quick succession as he dropped the shield, but Loki sidestepped or blocked the spells easily.

"Is that all you've got, Seidhr? You bring shame to your ancestors! There was a time when your kind stood along with the warriors of Asgard — shoulder to shoulder. Perhaps they would have been given me a challenge…You are but a relic of the times gone by!"

Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes. What was it with megalomaniacs and their tendency to monologue? In this instance, however, it was working in his favour. As they circled each other, Stark had managed crawl behind the bar. Loki did have a point though. While Harry was no slouch when it came to raw power, he had spent the past decade keeping his spells subtle — underpowered. He had rarely had the occasion to use the more powerful ones. Consequently, he couldn't use them as quickly — nor did he have as much control over them. And he certainly did not he have a wide arsenal of spells like Dumbledore or Hermione.

"Serpensortia!" he conjured four massive snakes to distract Loki as he contemplated what to do next. Unlike most wizards he had known over his lifetime, Loki was no slouch at dodging, and he couldn't cast powerful area wide spells in a confined space — especially since his control was rather dubious at best. He needed to finish this quickly — Loki's plan was already in motion. The armoured creatures zooming past the tower in flying chariots were clearly aliens — perhaps the Chitauri Thor had warned them about.

The serpents did their job. Loki had left himself vulnerable as he tried to get rid of them. At a flick of his wrist, the Elder Wand came sliding into Harry's hand. By the time Loki recognised the danger he was in, the Deathstick was already pointed at his heart.

"Crucio!" whispered Harry. He didn't particularly enjoy the unforgivable, but its effectiveness couldn't be denied. And sure enough, Loki was writhing at his feet the moment the curse connected.

Harry held the curse for about a minute — he needed Loki coherent enough to answer his questions. It was times like these when he wished he had spent some time learning Legilimency — or had some Veritaserum handy.

"Tell me how to stop it," Harry asked threateningly. "Or so help me…" he pointed the wand at Loki's heart. The avengers had reported that a portal had been opened above the Stark Tower and more Chitauri were coming through ever minute. All attempts to shut it down had failed because of the energy barrier protecting it.

"Curse… you… Seidhr…" Loki spoke trembling in the aftermath of the Cruciatus. Harry raised his wand again.

"Crucio!" he held the curse for another minute.

"It cannot… be stopped," Loki panted. "It is… self sustaining. Unless you… let me go… the Chitauri will… destroy the… planet."

"Not if I destroy them first," muttered Harry.

Loki laughed feebly, "You are… no match… for them… Seidhr… You're… certainly… no match… for their master…"

"Who?"

"They call him… The Mad Titan!" Loki grinned maniacally.

"Really? He can't be all that powerful if he needs suckers like you to do his dirty work," Harry tried to goad him into revealing more, but Loki refused to speak any more, despite being subjected to multiple bouts of the Cruciatus Curse.

Harry silenced and tied him up. It was not worth wasting time on the deranged lunatic. It would take a lot of time to break him. The Chitauri would wreck the city in the meantime. Looking around, he noticed that Stark had slipped away at some point. Having secured the sceptre with the strongest spells he could think of, he disapparated away. He had considered taking it with him, but he wasn't sure if he could handle it safely — it had tried to overwhelm his mind the moment he had touched it.

* * *

Harry was met with a scene of complete destruction at the bottom of the Stark Tower. The Avengers were holding their own, but they were slowly being overwhelmed by the sheer number of Chitauri — and whatever those giant space worms were called. Fortunately, they had managed to evacuate a large chunk of the civilian population before the attack had truly begun, keeping the casualties to a minimum.

While they had managed to keep the Chitauri contained to a small area so far, they were slowly being pushed back. Harry realised that he needed to act fast. Deciding to even the odds a bit, he started taking the Chitauri down with extreme efficiency. Again and again, the Elder Wand fell, spewing curse after curse — cutting curses, pulverising hexes, piercing hexes, withering curses, blasting curses, incendiary charms — with deadly accuracy. It didn't go on for long, though; before he knew it, one of the space worms was on his tail.

"I'll take the worms — stay out of the way," he announced on the comm link. Those were the ones causing the maximum havoc.

"You sure, Potter?" came the tired voice of Captain Rogers.

"Yes — focus on the humanoids," replied Harry, taking flight. Unassisted flight was one of the things he had researched after the fall of Voldemort — having seen firsthand how effective it could be.

"Ignis Infernum," he cried out, pointing his wand at the space worm tailing him. The effect was instantaneous — the giant ugly creature screeched as it was lit on fire — the cursed flames burning through it in a matter of seconds.

"We need to get them away from here," he panted from the effort of dousing the flames once they had done their job. It wouldn't do to set the city ablaze immediately after saving it from the invaders.

"But where?" came the voice of Stark. "They'll leave a trail of destruction wherever we take them…"

"How about open ocean?" asked Steve.

"I highly doubt all of them would follow us that far," replied Tony.

"Here's an idea," came Natasha's voice, "can't you teleport them, Harry?"

"Wait! What do you mean by teleport them?" asked Tony.

Harry grinned, "I'll do one better."

"What do you mean?"

But Harry didn't respond. He was already tailing another worm.

"Portus!" he turned the worm's tail into a time bound portkey — set to go off in ten seconds. He followed it up by an Ignis Infernum. Moments later, the burning beast appeared at the mouth of the portal, killing the ones trying to come through. The portal was high enough for the cursed flames to burn themselves out well before they could find another source of fuel.

The Avengers cheered.

"That was awesome!" cried Stark.

Harry repeated the process four more times, killing all but the last of the remaining space worms and hundreds of incoming Chitauri in the process. He left the last for the Hulk who was busy smashing it into oblivion.

"We need to close the portal before any more of them come through," came the tired voice of Captain America. "Status, Natasha?"

"I am gonna need a minute here," came Natasha's voice. She was clearly in the middle of a fight.

"Stark, Barton, can you back up Steve here? I am gonna see if I can help with the portal," Harry spoke through the comm link, disapparating the moment he got an acknowledgement.

The last thing he saw as he disapparated was a fork of lightning strike ten feet to the left of where he was standing — Thor had finally arrived.

* * *

Harry appeared at the top of Stark Tower to see Natasha taking on a platoon of Chitauri on her own. While she was doing an admirable job, it was evident she was being slowly but surely overwhelmed. The Chitauri seemed to have figured out her intentions and were determined to prevent her from succeeding.

"Need some help, Natasha?" he shouted as he pulverised one of the Chitauri.

And within moments, they found themselves fighting back to back, not unlike the way they had done in Prague when Natasha had been attacked, just a few days before her betrayal.

Harry shook his head, now was not the time to be thinking about the past. While he could never go back to trusting her the way he had done, they needed to keep their differences aside for the sake of humanity — at least for the time being.

"Reducto!" he destroyed another fighter.

"Have you... were you..." Natasha was trying to ask something as she killed her share of Chitauri.

"Sectumsempra! What?"

"This... magic... how long have you been able to do it?"

"Diffindo! Since I was born."

"Even when..."

"Depulso! Yes, even back then... I had been been meaning to tell you, you know..."

"Really?" gasped Natasha, killing another fighter. They were down to the last dozen or so.

"Incendio! I had made arrangements for the two of us to disappear for some time... I had been meaning to talk to you that night..."

Neither of them needed to explain what "that night" meant.

"I didn't want to do it, you know... I wasn't left with a choice..."

Harry didn't know how to respond to that. Fortunately, he was saved the trouble as he killed the last of the Chitauri it was the time to focus on closing the portal.

"Dr. Selvig said he built a failsafe before he was knocked out. It can be used to shut the portal down…" said Natasha, panting from the effort.

"Do it!" replied Harry.

"I… I need the sceptre to do it..."

Harry swore, he really didn't want to risk handling the sceptre.

* * *

It didn't take them long to shut the portal down. Surprisingly enough, the remaining Chitauri dropped motionless the moment the portal closed.

"They were probably being controlled by some sort of signal being sent through the portal," supplied Tony. "We probably should destroy them, though."

"Hulk smaaaaaaaash!"

And just like that, Hulk smashed them all, right before Harry burnt the remains with Fiendfyre.

* * *

Afterwards, they arrived at the deck of the Stark Tower to find Thor arguing with Loki, whom he had untied. He appeared to be trying to reason with him — to make him close the portal.

"It's not needed, Thor," supplied Steve. "The portal is closed, the Chitauri destroyed."

"Impossible!" cried Loki.

"Yeah," smirked Harry. "Wonder what this Mad Titan of yours will have to say about it…"

"What did you say?" asked Thor, who had paled. "How do you know of the Mad Titan?"

"Ask your brother — he was the one working with him."

Thor turned towards Loki with a questioning Lok on his face. Loki merely glared.

"Who is this Mad Titan, anyway?" interjected Stark. "He seems to have freaked you out, Point Break."

"Thanos — the Mad Titan — is a warlord of the space. He's supposed to be one of the most powerful individuals in existence. It is said that he travels from planet to planet, wiping out half the population wherever he goes. He's also supposed to be a myth. Loki, tell us what you know."

Loki said nothing, choosing to glare at Harry instead.

"Right, he's clearly not telling," said Harry. "Perhaps some time in a cell will change his mind."

"Loki will be returning with me to Asgard — as will the Tesseract — neither of them belong here," Thor spoke up.

"As I said before, Loki is not going anywhere until he has paid for his crimes here," growled Harry.

"He's a prince of Asgard!"

"He's a criminal — a thug with delusions of grandeur!"

They stared into each other's eyes for what seemed like eternity — neither willing to give an inch.

"I am afraid I cannot allow this — the Allfather will certainly not allow his son to be treated like a common criminal," said Thor, raising his hammer.

"I am afraid that you, or any Asgardian, for that matter, have no say in this," replied Harry, ready to defend himself. He could feel the remaining Avengers prepare themselves behind him. Hulk roared.

Thor seemed to be taken aback, "Surely you don't want to fight anymore?"

"Was that a threat?" growled Harry.

"I will not allow my brother to be subject to the practices of Midgard!"

There was a tense silence as they regarded each other.

"Surely we can come to a compromise?'" Thor almost pleaded.

"You want a compromise? How about Asgard pays reparations for what their prince has done?"

"Surely, you don't hold entire Asgard responsible for actions of one individual?"

"Do you hear yourself? Or is hypocrisy not a word in Asgardian dictionary?" Harry asked incredulously.

"I think Harry is right," Steve interjected. "You can't have is both ways. There will no negotiations unless Asgard is willing to pay reparations."

Any further discussion was interrupted by a shout of "NO!" followed by a body colliding with Harry. Loki had taken advantage of the distraction to pull out a blade from somewhere and had rushed at Harry, intent to stab him in the back. Natasha seemed to have noticed this at the last moment and had attempted to push Harry out of the way — or perhaps shield him with her body. The end result was her lying on top of Harry with a blade sticking out of her chest. The entire incident had taken less than a few seconds.

Harry's vision turned red. It was the fourth time a woman had jumped between him and certain death. His saw flashes of the previous incidents he had kept suppressed in the dark corners of his mind. His mother begging for his life... Hermione taking Dolohov's speciality headed for him, despite knowing what it did — or likely because of it; the look of resignation on her face had haunted him forever... Luna taking Rudolphus Lestrage's Killing Curse meant for him, her look of permanent surprise etched forever on his retinas...

Regardless of his feelings towards Natasha, he couldn't allow the one responsible to walk away — not again. He had been powerless before, but not this time. He could see Thor and the other Avengers moving to restrain Loki, but he was faster. The Elder Wand slid into his hand and was pointed straight at Loki before anyone could do more than take a step. Rage and hatred clouding his vision, he hissed the words he had always avoided.

"Avada Kedavra!"

* * *

**Author's Notes**

Thanks for all the reviews. I'll try and incorporate all the feedback I have recieved to the best of my abilities. Keep in mind that English is not my first language.

I have recieved multiple reviews complaining about how Harry's presence has changed nothing and how I am sticking too close to canon. I need you to understand that the first couple of chapters were about setting up the backstory and introducing Harry into the mix. The subtle changes like Harry having some measure of control over the Hulk or Thor not being trusted or Harry/Natasha backstory will have lasting consequences — just not in the first few chapters. The story will diverge from the conon as it progresses. If that is not fast enough for you, I am sorry, but this story is probably not for you. I can't think of a way to write a good story where Harry's presence changes everything in the first chapter and the story is not a one shot. If you can, feel free to write one and show me how it is done.

The story will loosely follow canon — but it will diverge as changes introduced by Harry's presence take hold. And just because I am using canon lines at times, doesn't mean the characters were in the same mindset when they spoke those lines. a whispered line from the movies may become a shouted one in the fic — it's called a fanfic for a reason.

Harry is not super powerful. When he met Voldemort in the battle of Hogwarts, he was a lot more competent than canon Harry, but he was still at the level of a new Hogwarts graduate at best — or maybe slightly better. The intent is to have him grow with this story. If he were powerful enough to face Thanos from the beginning, the rest of the story would be a joke.

Harry/Natasha may or may not happen. If it does happen, it won't be anytime soon. But Harry and Natasha are the central characters as far as this story is concerned. Most chapters will be from the point of view of one or the other.

Once again, thanks for the support! Please read and review.

**Published: **2019-09-22


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